INSTALLING revolving doors in the atrium of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ sumptuous headquarters would hardly be in keeping with the art deco styling.

Corn Bunting numbers have plummeted due to use of agricultural land[GETTY/ LONELY PLANET]

The way new secretaries of state have been beating a path to their oak-panelled offices inside Nobel House, London, in recent years certainly demands a speedy entrance… and exit.

There have been more Defra heads than England football managers over the past decade.

Elizabeth Truss became the sixth incumbent in the ministry’s lifetime last week as part of David Cameron’s so-called cull of “pale males”.

Turtle dove numbers have crashed by 93 per cent since the 1970s

Stuart Winter

It was a day when her predecessor Owen Paterson must have felt what it was like to be a badger as he entered the crosshairs of the Prime Minister’s sight of fire.

To use a couple of football clichés, Ms Truss is looking out on a level playing field with everything to play for.

As for conservationists, fields are places where wildlife and flowering native plants should flourish in all their glory, if need be with taxpayers’ farming subsidies. The desire to keep farmland productive for our larders while remaining vibrant habitat is becoming an increasing concern as bird numbers continue witnessing appalling long-term declines.

Turtle dove numbers have crashed by 93 per cent since the 1970s, with corn buntings, grey partridges and tree sparrows suffering similar fates.

There was something poignant last Tuesday about the appointment of a new Environment Secretary on the same day as the publication of an illuminating report from the Food Research Collaboration, a campaign collective of 10 leading organisations including the Soil Association, RSPB, Food Ethics Council and National Trust.

The report, Square Meal, calls for a new “recipe for farming, wildlife, food and public health”, highlighting the connectivity between food price rises, the growing obesity crisis, loss of biodiversity and the need for a resilient farming system in an age of climate change and soaring human population growth.

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On her website, Ms Truss has expressed her concerns about the use of agricultural land for subsidised solar farms and biomass plants, issues that will endear her to environmentalists who see beyond the sometimes blinkered cause of carbon reduction at any price.

As a former education minister Ms Truss will undoubtedly understand the notion of leaving children a legacy. Arguably her biggest challenge at Defra will be ensuring our generation is the first in history to leave a healthier, more vibrant, biodiversity-rich environment for its children. If she succeeds, there will be no need for those revolving doors.